A
proposal to give protection status to the woolly mammoth, a
species that has been extinct for 10,000 years, is the
latest attempt by conservation-minded countries to stop its
genetic cousin the African elephant from following in the
mammoth's giant footsteps by slipping into extinction.

The
proposal by Israel to afford the prehistoric mammoth
Appendix II protection under the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
at its meeting taking place in Sri Lanka in May, could play
a vital role in saving elephants who are being poached at
the rate of around 30,000 animals a year. Unlike the demise
of the mammoth, it is the global ivory trade that is
decimating elephants. Although international trade in
elephant ivory has been banned since 1990, traffickers often
try to pass off ivory as legal mammoth ivory to circumvent
the ban, because of its near identical appearance.

Israel's proposal is one of 57 announced this week by
CITES. Countries from around the world submitted the
proposals seeking to increase or decrease protections for
152 wild animal species affected by international commercial
trade. These include conflicting proposals on elephants,
with nine African countries wanting to up-list the African
elephants of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe
from Appendix II to I in the face of an insatiable poaching
crisis, whilst a proposal by Zambia seeks to down-list its
elephants to Appendix II to allow international commercial
trade in raw ivory. And Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe,
whose populations of the species are already on Appendix II,
want to weaken existing restrictions on their ability, and
that of South Africa whose elephant population is also on
Appendix II, to export ivory to consumer countries.

Other
species on the CITES agenda include the giraffe whose wild
populations have declined by up to 40 percent in the last 30
years due to habitat loss and poaching, Mako sharks
threatened by the Asian shark fin trade, Sri Lankan lizards
imperilled by the exotic pet trade, giant guitarfish and 10
species of wedgefish declining due to over-fishing, and a
proposal by Namibia to down-list the Southern white rhino
and by Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) to allow trade in rhino
horn.

Wildlife experts at Humane Society
International, who will attend the CITES meeting in
Sri Lanka, say that nations need to urgently reboot their
approach to wildlife protection in the face of unsustainable
trade driving species to the edge of extinction.

Kitty Block, president of Humane Society
International, said: "Every single day,
human-induced habitat loss, poaching, commercial trade and
climate change are pushing more of our planet's precious
wild species towards extinction. We can no longer afford any
complacency when it comes to saving wild animal species
threatened by over-exploitation, and so as we welcome CITES
proposals to establish new or increased protections, we urge
nations to ensure that species conservation is approached as
a necessity not a luxury, with pro-active trade restrictions
imposed long before a species is at the extinction
precipice.

"With ivory traffickers exploiting the
long-extinct mammoth so that they can further exploit
imperilled elephants, the time is now for African and all
other nations to unite in the fight to end the poachingepidemic andensure all ivory markets are closed.
Giraffes too need our urgent attention, having already
disappeared from seven countries and now quietly slipping
into extinction with the wild population at or just under
100,000. The time to act is now, before we lose them
forever.”

Nicola Beynon, Head of Campaigns
in Australia, said: "Humane
Society International is pleased eighteen species of shark
and ray have been put forward for CITES protection with a
large number of countries stepping up to defend them from
the voracious trade in their meat and fins.”

CITES offers three levels of protection, and
the proposals generally aim to list currently unlisted
species, or to increase or decrease protection between
Appendix I (which more or less prevents commercial
international trade) and II (which allows trade under
special conditions).

CITES proposals of note
include:

• Giraffe: Central African
Republic, Chad, Kenya, Mali, Niger and Senegal have proposed
to list the giraffe on CITES Appendix II. The species is
currently not CITES-listed; its wild population has declined
by between 36 percent and 40 percent over the last 30 years;
it is threatened by poaching, and it is internationally
traded: nearly 40,000 giraffes and their parts and products
were imported to the U.S. from 2006-2015, including bone
carvings (21,402), bones (4,789), trophies (3,744), skin
pieces (3,008), bone pieces (1,903), skins (855), and
jewellery (825).The latest International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species has added
the Kordofan and Nubian subspecies of giraffes to the list
of "critically endangered,” with fewer than 4,650 animals
left. The reticulated, Thornicroft's and West African
giraffe subspecies were also listed as endangered or
vulnerable. Giraffes have disappeared completely from
Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Guinea, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria
and Senegal.

• African elephant:
Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, Liberia,
Nigeria, Sudan, Syria and Togo have proposed to transfer
elephant populations of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and
Zimbabwe from Appendix II to Appendix I in order to offer
maximum protection under CITES in the face of the ongoing
threat posed by the unsustainable demand from the ivory
trade, the uncertainty of the impact of that trade on the
species across its range, and the enforcement problems that
exist because the level of protection is inconsistent across
the continent, with some populations protected under
Appendix I and others under Appendix II.

In a separate
proposal, Zambia seeks to transfer its elephant population
from Appendix I to II and to allow international trade in
raw ivory for commercial purposes; and Botswana, Namibia and
Zimbabwe have proposed to allow unlimited amounts of
registered raw ivory from government-owned stocks to be
traded to importing Parties verified by the Secretariat to
have certain measures in place to, among other things,
prevent re-export.

• Woolly mammoth -
Israel proposes to list the woolly mammoth in Appendix II to
tackle the growing trade in mammoth ivory which can be used
to launder illegal elephant ivory. To get around the
elephant ivory ban, traders sometimes mix the two ivories
together, and in the absence of a reliable and
cost-effective test to distinguish between the two, the
market in mammoth ivory is providing a dangerous cover for
poached elephant ivory.

• Mako sharks, giant
guitarfishes and wedgefishes: sharks and rays have
again broken the CITES record for numbers of countries
proposing listings. Longfin and shortfin Mako sharks, six
species of giant guitarfishes, and 10 species of wedgefishes
have been proposed for listing on CITES Appendix II. All of
these fish species are declining in the wild, mainly as a
result of over-fishing, particularly for the lucrative Asian
shark fin market.

• Southern white
rhino: Namibia has proposed to transfer its
population from Appendix I to II, and Eswatini has proposed
a measure that would allow international trade in rhino
horns for commercial purposes. There are an estimated 20,000
southern white rhino in Africa, and they remain threatened
by poaching for their horn. Poaching in South Africa, which
is home to around 90 percent of southern white rhino, has
escalated enormously in recent years.

•
Australian proposals: The Australian
government has proposed down listing the western rufous
bristlebird which is now extinct, as well as down listings
for the western bristlebird, greater stick-nest rat, shark
bay mouse, false water rat and central rock
rat.

"Humane Society International stands ready to
assist all those countries at CITES seeking increased
protection for species imperilled by commercial trade. We
hope the Australian government will be giving them their
vote too," concluded Ms Beynon.

Facts:

• This will be the 18th
meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES, which
will take place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from May 23 to June
3. HSI will have a team of experts at the meeting including
Nicola Beynon from our Australian office.• • 183
countries are CITES Parties and 64 of them, plus the
European Union representing 28 member states, submitted
proposals for consideration at the upcoming
meeting.• • If approved at the meeting, the
proposals could affect the protective status under CITES of
574 taxa including 17 mammals, 4 birds, 51 reptiles, 57
amphibians, 18 fish, 20 invertebrates, and 407
plants.• • CITES offers three levels of
protection for species affected by international
trade:• 1. Appendix I is for
species threatened with extinction which are or may be
affected by trade. Trade in specimens of these species must
be subject to particularly strict regulation in order not to
endanger further their survival and must only be authorized
in exceptional circumstances.2. 3. Appendix
II is for species which although not necessarily
now threatened with extinction may become so unless trade in
specimens of such species is subject to strict regulation in
order to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival;
and other species which must be subject to regulation in
order that trade in specimens of certain species may be
brought under effective
control.4. 5. Appendix III is for
species which any Party identifies as being subject to
regulation within its jurisdiction for the purpose of
preventing or restricting exploitation, and as needing the
co-operation of other Parties in the control of
trade.6.

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